Open enrolment numbers are growing in the US, but what about Canada?
Allison Rogers
On April 1, like a laughable April Fool’s joke for the general public, an article titled “How Gen Z is Becoming the Toolbelt Generation” was published in the Wall Street Journal. Author Teping Chen wrote that “rising wages and new technologies are reshaping the image of apprenticeship as a profession, helping to shed its image as a dirty, low-level job.” This, combined with “growing skepticism about the rewards of a college education,” is creating an opportunity for apprenticeship to blossom in the United States.
Chin said the number of students enrolled in U.S. vocational community colleges grew 16% last year, reaching the highest level since regular data collection began in 2018.
Ask the average auto body business owner or manager and you’ll find that the collision repair industry only has half of what we need. We’re drowning in new tools, we’re confronted with flashy new technology at trade shows all over the place, and demo invites land in our email inboxes (virtual or otherwise). Not to mention electric vehicles, ever-evolving ADAS, the challenges the insurance industry faces as it adopts new technology, new tools on our own job sites… need we go on any more?
In the article, Chin also points out that the number of construction students in the US grew 23% from 2018 to 2023, while occupations like HVAC and auto maintenance and repair grew 7% — a modest increase compared to higher-paying occupations: Average salaries for new construction hires in the US rose 5.1% last year, according to payroll services provider ADP.
This statistic is mirrored in Canadian data. In a report released last year by the Automotive Industry Association of Canada (AIA Canada), the organization found that 65% of auto body and collision repair shop owners experienced increased technician turnover in 2023. Nearly half of the technicians who left did so for higher-paying jobs. And 13% of technicians who left the repair industry went into construction, where they earned an average weekly salary of about $1,483 Canadian dollars. Meanwhile, those in the automotive repair and maintenance industry earned about $983 Canadian dollars per week.
Chen’s article concludes that there are two main drivers for this growing trend in the profession: disdain for the idea of traditional degrees and diplomas, and the increased adoption of technology in trade schools and across industries (the “cool factor” so to speak). At the end of the article, the author connects Gen Z’s growing interest in skilled trades to the “entrepreneurial potential” of this generation, comparing it to the willingness of young auto repair students to start their own auto body repair businesses. A far cry from the “lazy generation” myths we hear from many in desk jobs.
Perhaps one day Canada will be able to report statistics like those of software company Jobber, which reported that 75% of American high school seniors it surveyed expressed strong interest in attending a school that offered paid on-the-job training. Apprenticeships!
Companies are showing no signs of following through on their mission to ride the technology tsunami. We are in the midst of a new industrial revolution and if technology continues to evolve, so will young people…right?! The question we must answer now is: will we wait and see, or will we take action today?
